Liberal MPs, staffers land lucrative taxpayer-funded roles

A leading lawyer says a government body is so compromised by political appointments “it might be worth abolishing it and starting again”.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal is so compromised by political appointments that the next federal government should consider abolishing it, a leading lawyer says.

A series of Liberal MPs and staffers were this week handed plum six-figure jobs on the tribunal, which provides legal reviews of government decisions, joining dozens of Coalition-linked members appointed since 2013.

Anthony Albanese said it was an “extraordinary abuse of power” and promised a Labor government would review the system to provide “more transparency in proper appointments”.

Australian Lawyers Alliance national spokesman Greg Barns SC went further, saying the tribunal needed to be “completely independent” to help vulnerable Australians in dispute with the federal government.

“This independence is severely eroded when it looks as though it is stacked with political staffers, ex-MPs and the like — irrespective of which side of politics,” he said.

“It is now so compromised it might be worth abolishing it and starting again with a new tribunal and a truly independent selection process.”

Greg Barns SC says the tribunal’s independence is ‘severely eroded’.

The Labor leader agreed the Coalition’s political appointments had “undermined the integrity of the system”.

Former Western Australian Attorney-General Michael Mischin was this week named as a tribunal deputy president, with a salary of $496,560, while Scott Morrison’s former chief of staff was among those chosen as senior members to be paid between $329,930 and $391,940.

“This government’s obsessed with appointing mates to bodies like the Administrative Appeals Tribunal,” Mr Albanese said.

But the Prime Minister dismissed these criticisms, arguing the government appointed people from both sides of politics to taxpayer-funded jobs.

“These people are qualified for the jobs, they’ll do a great job … that’s simply why they’ve been appointed,” Mr Morrison said.

Waiting times for tribunal decisions have blown out in recent years, and the Herald Sun revealed last year that some members had raked in six-figure salaries despite failing to finalise any cases for 12 months.

Six-figure pay packets to political allies

A series of Liberal MPs and staffers have been appointed to plum taxpayer-funded jobs by the Morrison government before it goes into caretaker mode.

On the eve of the election, which is due to be called this week, the government has again handed positions on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with six-figure pay packets to its political allies.

Former Western Australian Attorney-General Michael Mischin was named on Monday as a tribunal deputy president, a role in which he will make a whopping $496,560 a year.

Federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash said new senior members of the tribunal — who are paid between $329,930 and $391,940 — included former New South Wales government minister Pru Goward and Ann Duffield, Scott Morrison’s ex-chief of staff.

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash says Scott Morrison’s former chief of staff has been appointed to the AAT. Picture: Gaye Gerard

New members — who will be on $193,990 to $249,420 — include Peter Katsambanis, a former MP in the Victorian and WA parliaments, as well as Howard government staffer Cheryl Cartwright and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne’s senior adviser Kate Chapple.

Senator Cash said: “All of the appointees are highly qualified to undertake the important task of conducting merits review of government decisions.”

But shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus accused the government of “hanging on to power so they can hand out as many lucrative, taxpayer-funded jobs to themselves and their mates”.

Dozens of Liberal-linked figures have been appointed to the tribunal since the Coalition came to power in 2013.

“While Australians families struggle with the cost of living and stagnant pay packets, Scott Morrison is throwing around cushy $400,000 a year jobs to former Liberal MPs and staffers,” Mr Dreyfus said.

Ahadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the government is hanging on to power to give lucrative jobs to themselves and their friends. Picture: AAP

The Herald Sun revealed last year that some members of the tribunal had raked in six-figure salaries despite failing to finalise any cases for a year, while the median waiting time for decisions on migration and refugee cases had blown out to 108 weeks.

Senator Cash said the new appointments would “provide the tribunal with more resources to conduct high-quality merits review with minimum delay”.

John McVeigh, a cabinet minister under Malcolm Turnbull who retired in 2020, was also handed a government job on Monday.

Water Minister Keith Pitt said he would chair the new Modernising Murray River Systems panel to assess the water delivery infrastructure in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Former NSW government minister Don Harwin — who resigned in 2020 for travelling to his holiday house during a Covid lockdown — was added to the Australia Council Board by Arts Minister Paul Fletcher.